QPL is a complete web questionnaire development and content analysis
system. Using a simple language to describe your questionnaire, it automatically builds
all the files you need to create a dynamic web site. GAO makes this software freely available
to the public on this web site.

QPL Add-On for Firefox 12
June 5, 2012

The QPL6 Add-on for Firefox has been updated for Firefox , which was
recently released . Due to the new frequent Firefox update cycles, I've set this release
so that it should work through Firefox version 15. This update
also includes a number of minor improvements. (See Download.)

QPL Add-On for Firefox 7
October 2, 2011

The QPL6 Add-on for Firefox has been updated for Firefox 7, which was
recently released . Due to the new frequent Firefox update cycles, I've set this release
so that it should work through Firefox version 10. This update
also includes a number of security-related improvements. (See Download.)

QPL Add-On for Firefox 5
July 1, 2011

The QPL6 Add-on for Firefox has been updated for Firefox 5, which was
released on 2011-06-21. This updated add-on also works with Firefox 3 and 4. This update
also includes a number of security-related improvements. (See Download.)

QPL Add-On for Firefox 4
March 27, 2011

The QPL6 Add-on for Firefox has been updated for Firefox 4, which was
released on 2011-03-21. This updated add-on also works with Firefox 3. No new features
have been added to the QPL6 system. (See Download.)

QPL 6 Released
January 6, 2011

The new QPL6 software is now available for downloading. The QPL6
development software is provided as a Mozilla Firefox Add-On for the
Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux operating systems. The QPL6 add-on makes it easy to use
the software to select various options when building your questionnaire web site and statistical analysis files.
You must, however, use your own text editing software to to create your QPL6 program
file.

The QPL6 documentation is provided on this web site, though it is not yet complete. The documentation, and the rest of this web site, will be
updated in the coming months.

QPL 6 Being Rolled Out Inside GAO
August 3, 2010

GAO has been selectively using the QPL6 application for over a year with much
success and is now rolling it out to its questionnaire designers. This rollout should be
completed by the end of September. At that time, we will focus on the release of a public version
on this web site. In the meantime, you may preview the new
QPL6 documentation here. As you
will see, there are still some gaps to fill in. When you add 100+ new commands, it takes
some effort to describe how they all work!

QPL 6 Under Development
September 19, 2009

Well, we got delayed longer than expected. We've been using QPL6 here at
GAO for a year on a number of projects with no problems and are currently working through the friendly documentation.
We're planning to release the documentation on this web site and make software generally available
as a Firefox Add-On in October. The Firefox Add-On will give you a convenient way to install and
update the QPL software. From within Firefox, you will be able to create new projects,
compile your programs, and view the results. Future enhancements being considered include adding
code-generating wizards and an editor that will let you write your QPL program inside Firefox.
The Add-On will work in Firefox 3+ on Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS X, and Linux computers.

QPL 6 Under Development
July 15, 2008

A new version of QPL is under development. Our plans call for extending its
current capabilities in several areas. Several new types of questions will be added, including
one that lets you embed another questionnaire inside of a question. This would let respondents
navigate seamlessly between two or more related questionnaires without separate logins. A number
of new layout options will be included as well as more elaborate statistical analysis programs
that provide the full text of the questions in the statistical output. We don't expect to have
a release of this new version ready until Spring 2009.

QPL 5.05.007 Released
May 18, 2006

This release updates the content analysis functions to accommodate a change
in how MySQL processes SQL statements in MySQL 5.x. If you are using MySQL 4.x, you do not
need to implement this upgrade. See the Release Notes for more information about these and other improvements. Go to the Download page to download the updated software.

QPL 5.05.006 Released
March 27, 2006

This release focuses on accessibility improvements for visually impaired
users (i.e., conforming with Section 508 guidelines) and conformance with HTML coding
standards. Coding 'wizards' have also been added to the QPL toolbar in HomeSite that
make it easier to write QPL programs. See the Release Notes for more information about these and other improvements. Go to the Download page to download the updated software.

QPL 5.05.001 Released
August 4, 2005

This release adds a new log-in option: you can let respondents log in
directly to their questionnaire when you send them a URL to your project web
site that contains their user name and password.
This release now also may be installed as an add-in to HomeSite+, the special version
of HomeSite that is included with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004.
This release also contains a couple bug fixes to the functions that export fixed
format data files and the content analysis data files.
See the Release Notes
for more information. Go to the Download page to
download the updated software.

QPL 5.04.010 Released
March 4, 2005

This release contains some minor bug fixes to HTML email messages, XDATE behavior,
and the date validation for the date, March 31.
See the Release Notes
for more information. Go to the Download page to
download the updated software.

QPL 5.04.009 Released
February 9, 2005

This version of QPL adds a few more incremental improvements, including better auto-sizing
of columns of questions in a matrix layout, adding programmable access keys to buttons on
questionnaire pages and the administrative pages, adding a 'View' button to a respondent's
user account page that lets an administrator see the respondents entire questionnaire with
his responses, and a new capability to automatically send account confirmation email messages
to respondents when you use log-in option that lets respondents create their own accounts.
See the Release Notes
for more information. Go to the Download page to
download the updated software.

QPL 5.04.005 Released
November 23, 2004

A number of improvements have been made to the system including adding a
pop-up calendar to date questions and new functions to create pop-up information
boxes and a pop-up box that contains a complete summary of all the answers
that a respondent has entered to his or her questionnaire. See the Release Notes for more information. Go
to the Download page to
download the updated software.

This version of QPL lets you
perform a systematic analysis of the comments your respondents made to
open-ended questions in your survey. This is generally referred to as
"qualitative" or "content" analysis. See Content Analysis for more information.

The data export functions have also been improved to
give you more control over how the export
files are created and to avoid the need to encrypt the data files.

QPL 5.03.011 ReleasedApril 29, 2004

The QPL software has been revised to add a few small improvements
to MULT, CHECK, STRING, and NUMBER formatting, and a new converter command line
option the lets you control when comments in the on-line tabulation
report are marked with the respondent's user name. See the Release Notes for more information. Go
to the Download page to download the updated software.

New Background Information on How QPL WorksApril 8, 2004

New pages were added to this site that provide a quick overview on
how the QPL
system works and the various ways you can
configure it to fit your survey
design needs. See the About page for more information.

QPL 5.03.010 ReleasedMarch 16, 2004

The QPL software has been revised to include a number of enhancements, including the
ability to immediately send test messages, longer SAS and SPSS value and variable
labels, and changes to force the log in page to always be displayed as the top
window on a respondent's browser. See the Release Notes for more information. Go
to the Download page to download the updated software.

An optional program that you can use to let anyone run reports on your questionnaire
data on-line has been upgraded to prevent unauthorized
access to your data. See the Release Notes
for more information.

QPL Version 5 Is Now Available!October 24, 2003

The web version of the Questionnaire Programming Language (QPL) software
is now available on this site. Though this is the first public release of this version,
GAO has used it over the last two years to produce 200 web surveys.

In addition to the previously mentioned features, this first public version
also integrates an email-system with the questionnaire, allowing questionnaire administrators to
quickly send custom messages to non-respondents. The system may also be used to embed
the questionnaire itself into an email message so respondents don't even need to go to the
web site.

In order to make sure that the documentation fits with the version of QPL you are using,
the documentation is now only available when you install the development software.

Please go to the Download page
on this site to view the installation instructions and download the software.

New QPL Version 5 Will Focus on Web Questionnaires
March 26, 2002

While the QPL programming language remains largely unchanged (programs written
for the original QPL system from 1986 will still compile without errors), how
applications are deployed and used has changed significantly. Instead of running
the application locally on an individual's PC, the new system builds a set of
files that must be installed on a web server. Respondents use their internet
browser to go to that web site and launch a questionnaire after logging in to
the project. Their responses are stored in a data base on the web server.

The project administrator may also log into a private set of
pages on the web site to create and edit user accounts, export
the project data, and view real-time summary statistics.

As it has done since 1992, GAO is making this software available to the public
without charge. GAO makes no claims about its applicability for any particular
purpose and cannot provide extensive end-user support. The system programs may
be downloaded from this web site.

QPL Version 4 Made Y2K Compliant
November 23, 1999

The 16-bit DOS version of QPL for CATI applications was upgraded
in 1999 to correct several Y2K problems. While no further work is planned on
this version, it still runs on Win9x, WinNT, Win2K, and WinXP systems. For more
information about this version, see the QPL Version 4 page
on this web site.